Guest Posting: Bird Feeders

Hey guys and gals.

I am guest posting over at 

Mess for Less with Vicky (the other one ;)) this week.

Check it out.

Leave a comment!

Thanks,

Vicky

Fireplace Mantle: March

It is St. Patrick's Day time.

Time for some lucky charms, rainbows and lots of green.

I found the subway art at Today's Fabulous Finds.  

 This last week our daughter Grace, was home from school sick. She is a crafty girl. We decided we needed a rainbow for the pot of gold. 

She colored some macaroni in the six rainbow colors. (I took pics but accidently deleted them... I don't wanna talk about it.) Add the gold coins and you have a very cute rainbow with it's pot of gold.

 I made this shamrock last year and had it stuck to a stake in the yard. I like it where it is now. It is made out of 2x4s. I can't remember where I got the pattern or the measurements anymore but if I do I will post them.

 This month the wreath was fun. I cut circles out of dark, medium and light green felt, put the eraser end of a pencil in the center, added a dab of hot glue and glued away. It took about a 1/2 a yard of each color. 

I love it.

The little tray is a trivet I found at the thrift store and added white vinyl shamrocks to. The white kinda broke up the green a bit.

 I found this vase at the same thrift store I found the trivet and had to have it. The yellow flowers I found at Michael's on sale. I got some plain yellow and some polka dotted. The nice thing about buying the fake flowers is you will probably see them again for Easter time! 

 What is a mantle without a bunting. This one is some homemade bakers twine I learned to make here. The shamrocks I cut out of  cute plaid kelly green and gold scrapbook paper. I cut a pattern out on my Silhouette in cardstock and traced it on the cute paper. I got 3 out of each 12x12 inch piece. I put 2 holes in the top and laced it through. It is tight enough that they pretty much stay where they belong.

Hope you all have a 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!
Click HERE for a list of all the parties I am linking to this week.

Woo Are You #2

It seems to be a laundry theme this week. Here goes:

1.  Do you fold your laundry right after it comes out of the dryer or do you wait?

My laundry has to be hot out of the dryer. If it is cold I stick it back in and fluff it so I can fold it nice and warm.

2. What kind of laundry detergent do you use?

I use the Members Mark high efficiency liquid from Sam's Club. I have the makings for a homemade batch but haven't gotten up the guts to do it yet!

3. Do you use fabric softener?

No. It used to be I wouldn't remember now...

4. Do you have a front loading washer and dyer or a top loading?

I finally got a sexy red front loading washer and dryer last year with the tax return. Is it sad that I can find a new appliance sexy?

5. On a scale to 1-10 (1 being the least and 10 being the highest) how well do you like

doing laundry?I actually like doing the laundry. The sorting, loading, switching and folding. Its the putting away I loathe. So I give it a 7.That was fun! I look forward to next weeks listsSee ya friends!

Sand Castle Birthday Cake

Birthday season has started at our house. 

They year starts out in February with Liam. 

He is turning 7 today.

After looking through my many cake and cupcake books he chose a sand castle cake out of Cakes for Kids.

Every so often I catch my little boys lying on the floor looking through the cake books on the shelf. 

They are so cute!

Another thing I like about the kids picking their birthday cakes is that I usually get to buy a new something for baking.

This time it was a 12 inch round cake pan, and an 8 inch square cake pan. 

 We have the best store here in Logan called Kitchen Kneads. 

I love that place. 

I thought this was going to be an easy one. Looks easy don't it! Not so my friends. 

I don't know what happened. I was in cake decorating mode, I had the little TV in the kitchen with a good show on, it was just harder than I had planned for it to be.  

The frosting is made with shortening to make it look like sand. Gotta make sure there is a crumble layer of butter cream. It doesn't like to stick to the cake. The doors, windows, and little balls are tootsie rolls melted a bit in the microwave and rolled out or up. The sand is brown sugar. The pebbles I found in the bulk section of the supermarket. Caramels and sugar cones finished it off.

My only catastrophe was that tall tower in the back. It is supposed to be 3 layers of cake. Well, when the tall, heavy cake sat on the bottom round cake it was too heavy. It started to fall over. Actually, it finally did fall over. 

Solution? Rice Krispy treats. I made an 8 inch pan of rice krispy treats and cut them into the right size squares, frosted them and decorated them as if the whole thing was made of cake.

Look at his face does he care? Nope. 

That smile makes all the baking and improvising worth it. 

I would do it all over again. 

Have a great 7th birthday little man.

We love you!!

A Blog Hop

Cheri @It's So Very Cheri has created this awesome Party Hop for us all! I would love for you to follow me via Linky Followers as well as jump on in and party with us!

Rules:
1. You MUST have the LINKY FOLLOWERS tool on your site to participate.
2. You MUST follow the person who has the party on their site as a thank you.
3. Just add your blog to the Linky Party below.
4. Grab the Blog Hop code which is right under the linky party where it says, "Get The Code Here"
5. Follow other bloggers (as many as you want) and leave each one of the blogs that you follow a comment letting them know you are following them and ask them to follow you back.

Woo Are You

I just found Woo Are You at Night Owl Crafting. It sounds pretty fun here it goes:

Are you married/in a relationship/single? For how long?

I have been married to my hunny for 17 years. We met while working at Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers.  I know cute right!?

What are your plans for Valentine's Day?

Since it is on a weekday I will probably help at the elementary school with the annual Valentine’s Day tea.  Husband and I will go out on a weekend night for dinner and maybe a movie.

Do you have any Valentine's traditions?

Honestly, I have never thought about traditions for Love Day. A box of conversation hearts and heart gummies happens every year. Maybe this year I need to start a new one. Something to think about.

What is your favorite Valentine's candy?

Conversation hearts and cinnamon lips. I buy extra so that I can have a stash after the day is done!

Name 3 things that you LOVE!

Family, Crafting, and Reading

See you guys over at the Night Owl!

Vicky

Date Night in a Bowl

 Over in our neck of the mountains all of us are students, or just finished being students. 

My husband just got his MBA. 

I am telling you this because if you know anything about school it is expensive. 

We all are broke.

Do we still want to spend time with our man? 

Of course we do!!

Here is a small solution to the problem

A Date In A Bowl.

I got a bowl at the dollar store. Filled it with some microwave popcorn, our favorite candy and some pop in some cute bottles.
I also included a card with a promo code from redbox.
At redbox.com you can purchase 5 promo codes at a time. 

I just had the gift sent to myself and then as I give these away as gifts I can just put a promo code in the card.
Here are some different drink ideas.
If someone doesn't drink pop you could always put in water bottles with a mix-in.

I like the look of these pop bottles so I am just going to flash this pic to you!

I am thinking these are going to be gifts for all my girls in the neighborhood. 
I gave one to a friend for her birthday and also included in the note free babysitting so they don't have to pay for that either! 
It would also be a greatValentine's Day gift!
Linking up at these parties.